Natural treatments to enhance sports and fitness recovery

• PRINCIPAL PROPOSED NATURAL TREATMENT: Vitamin C

• OTHER PROPOSED NATURAL TREATMENTS: Beta-carotene, beta-sitosterol, branched-chain amino acids, bromelain, carotenoids (astaxanthin plus lycopene), cherry juice, collagen hydrolysate, glucosamine, glutamine, horse chestnut, oligomeric proanthocyanidins, probiotics, selenium, thymus extract, vitamin E

DEFINITION: Treatment to aid recovery from the side effects of intense exercise and physical training

Introduction

In the competitive world of sports, the smallest advantage can make an enormous difference in the outcome of a contest. The conviction that performance enhancers can elevate a competitor to more elite levels maintains the demand for dietary supplements promising to improve athletic performance in areas such as strength, speed, and endurance.

Supplements may play another helpful role for athletesaiding recovery from the side effects of intense exercise. While moderate-intensity exercise is usually a positive activity, high-intensity endurance exercise, such as running marathons, can cause some health problems. In addition, all forms of exercise, when carried to an extreme, can cause severe muscle soreness, which may, in turn, affect training. Herbs and supplements advocated for these problems are discussed here.

The global sports nutrition market is a multi-billion dollar industry. Research indicates most male and female athletes competing in elite, international track and field competitions rely on dietary supplements to aid in muscle strength, performance, and endurance. The most prevalent forms include protein products, amino acids, herbal supplements, and caffeinated products. While some dietary supplements claim to enhance performance, they are not a substitute for a solid dietary foundation. Proper nutrition is a precursor before supplements can significantly upgrade performance. Additionally, because these supplements are not regulated as medicinal products, some are marketed with dubious claims, and others may contain undisclosed ingredients.

Principal Proposed Natural Treatments

Extremely intense exercise, such as training for and running in a marathon, is known to lower immunity, and endurance athletes frequently get sick after maximal exertion. Vitamin C has been proposed as a prevention method, but research is inconsistent, and most modern studies indicate supplementation with vitamins C and E is not beneficial for performance and has only a small likelihood of aiding recovery.

According to a double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving ninety-two runners, taking 600 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C for twenty-one days before a race made a significant difference in the incidence of sickness afterward. Within two weeks of the end of the race, 68 percent of the runners taking a placebo developed symptoms of a common cold, whereas only 33 percent of those taking the vitamin C supplement developed cold symptoms. As part of the same study, nonrunners of the same gender and similar age to those running were also given vitamin C or a placebo. For this group, the supplement had no apparent effect on the incidence of upper respiratory infections. Vitamin C seemed to be specifically effective in this capacity for those who exercised intensively.

Two other studies found that vitamin C could reduce the number of colds experienced by groups of people involved in rigorous exercise in extremely cold environments. One study involved 139 children attending a skiing camp in the Swiss Alps, while the other enrolled fifty-six military men engaged in a training exercise in Northern Canada during the winter months. In both cases, the participants took either one gram (g) of vitamin C or a daily placebo at the time their training program began. Cold symptoms were monitored for one to two weeks following training, and significant differences in favor of vitamin C were found.

However, one very large study of 674 U.S. Marine Corps recruits found no such benefit. The results showed no difference in the number of colds between the treatment and placebo groups. There are many possible explanations for this discrepancy. Perhaps basic training in the Marine Corps is significantly different from the other forms of exercise studied. Another point to consider is that the recruits did not start taking vitamin C at the beginning of training but waited three weeks before doing so. The study also lasted a bit longer than the earlier positive studies. Perhaps vitamin C is more effective at preventing colds in the short term. Another possibility is that vitamin C does not work.

Other Proposed Natural Treatments

Like vitamin C, the amino acid glutamine may be helpful for preventing the infections that occur after severe exercise. Glutamine is an important fuel source for some immune system cells. Some evidence suggests that athletes who have trained very hard have lower-than-normal levels of glutamine in their blood. One double-blind clinical trial involving 151 athletes found that supplementation with five grams of glutamine immediately after heavy exercise, followed by another five grams two hours later, reduced the incidence of infections significantly. Only 19 percent of those taking glutamine reported infections, while 51 percent of the placebo group succumbed to illness.

Probiotics are healthy organisms found in the digestive tract. Not only can they help prevent intestinal infections, but they also appear to help prevent colds. In a double-blind, controlled trial involving twenty healthy, elite distance runners, researchers found that a probiotic supplement (Lactobacillus fermentum) given for four months during winter training was significantly more effective at reducing the number and severity of respiratory symptoms compared with placebo. Weaker evidence suggests that beta-sitosterol might also offer some promise for this purpose. However, thymus extract, another proposed immune booster for athletes, does not seem to work, according to a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of sixty athletes.

Exercising increases the presence of free radicals, naturally occurring substances that can damage tissue. Some researchers have theorized that such damage may, in part, cause the muscle soreness and perhaps muscle deterioration that can accompany a strenuous workout. Based on this theory but on little direct evidence, various antioxidants have been proposed to help prevent muscle soreness or muscle damage, including astaxanthin plus lycopene, beta-carotene, cherry juice, coenzyme Q₁₀, oligomeric proanthocyanidins, selenium, vitamin C, and vitamin E. One double-blind trial compared vitamin C, vitamin E, and a placebo for muscle soreness in twenty-four male volunteers. Vitamin C relieved muscle soreness, but E did not. Two other studies failed to find C combined with E effective.

In one small study involving men in their early twenties engaging in muscle resistance training, muscle soreness improved with supplementation of the antioxidant astaxanthin. For four weeks, participants took 12 mg per day and engaged in prescribed exercises at selected intervals. While performance did not improve, recovery appeared to be aided by the use of astaxanthin. However, some previous studies failed to find this benefit, including one using an algae-derived carotenoid astaxanthin.

One small double-blind study found that a mixed amino acid reduced muscle soreness caused by endurance exercising of the arm. These researchers performed two studies. The first involved taking the amino acid thirty minutes before exercising; this study failed to find a benefit. The second, more effective regimen added one dose immediately after exercise and two doses daily for the following four days.

A specific family of amino acids, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), have shown some promise for sports performance and recovery, but the results have been mixed. In one study, BCAAs positively impacted recovery following muscle damage from long-distance running. In a review of twenty-four studies investigating the use of BCAAs among athletes, researchers found the dosage and form of BCAA supplements vary significantly between studies. Additionally, most studies fail to consider the athlete’s total protein intake when measuring benefits, making it difficult to assess the potential benefits of BCAAs properly. Nevertheless, the review revealed differences in the benefits of supplementation between types of athletes. In most studies, BCAA supplements activated anabolic signals in the body but failed to improve performance or recovery in a significant way. However, BCAAs lessened the soreness reported after exercise in athletes who engaged in resistance training but not in long-distance runners or similar endurance athletes.

The proteolytic enzyme supplement bromelain, used for sports injuries, has also been proposed for reducing muscle soreness after exercise. However, a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that compared bromelain with placebo failed to find benefit. Another study using a mixed proteolytic enzyme supplement also failed to find benefits.

Collagen hydrolysate is a nutritional supplement that may benefit cartilage tissue in joints. In a randomized, placebo-controlled study involving healthy college athletes with joint pain, ten grams daily of collagen hydrolysate appeared to effectively reduce the pain in twenty-four weeks.

The supplement phosphatidylserine has also failed to prove effective for reducing muscle soreness after exercise, as have chondroitin and magnet therapy. In one study, the supplement glucosamine failed to prove effective in reducing exercise-induced muscle soreness and actually increased soreness.

Athletes who train excessively may experience a condition called overtraining syndrome. Symptoms include depression, fatigue, reduced performance, and physiologic signs of stress. Numerous supplements have been suggested as treatments for this condition, including glutamine and, most prominently, antioxidants, but none have been proven effective.

Bibliography

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